An injury claim can be brought whenever you’re harmed because another person has been negligent. A claim like this is common after car accidents, slip-and-fall accidents, or after medical malpractice. The purpose of the claim is for you to get compensation for all of your losses, but it can be quite a complicated process. A personal injury attorney in Sugar Land is best placed to guide you through all of these challenges, protect your rights, and maximize your potential compensation.
How Can a Personal Injury Attorney in Sugar Land Help With My Injury Claim?
It’s always risky to take on a claim like this without legal help. Insurance companies have a lot of experience in denying and minimizing claims, and they know how easy it is to pull this off when they deal with ordinary people who lack experience with the law and don’t know their rights. Having a lawyer essentially levels the playing field.
By Investigating and Building Your Case
The first thing your lawyer will do is investigate your claim and use the evidence they collect to carefully build a case for you. They’ll collect evidence like your medical records, any police reports that might exist, witness statements, and all the information showing how much income you’ve lost if you weren’t able to go to work. Your lawyer will use this to properly calculate exactly what you’re owed. It’s important to do this right so you don’t miss out on any compensation. Because a lawyer with experience in personal injury has done this many times before, they will make sure that everything is accounted for.
In Texas, we have a comparative negligence rule that means if you are partly at fault for an accident, your compensation is typically reduced by the same percentage as your fault. This could potentially mean the loss of quite a lot of money, so it’s important that you not be assigned any more fault than you should actually hold. Insurance companies are notorious for trying to massage the narrative in such a way as to assign you more fault, and another important part of investigating and building your case is protecting you from these tactics.
By Dealing with Insurance Companies
Insurance companies can be very difficult to work with. The insurance adjuster will call you quickly after the accident and may start asking questions that are primarily designed to get you to say something they can use to minimize your claim. After your initial contact with the insurance company where you make your claim and lay out the facts, it’s important not to talk to them without first running things by your lawyer. Your lawyer will help you answer questions and even take over much of the communication personally.
Insurance companies are also likely to offer you an initial settlement in the hopes that you will be either anxious for money or unaware of what you really are owed and will just sign on the dotted line. These early settlements are often substantially less than what you should actually be getting, so another thing your lawyer will do for you is to protect you from signing anything that isn’t in your best interests. Your lawyer will look over all of these settlements and make sure they include all your losses and damages, including the non-economic ones, like pain and suffering or emotional distress. Texas law allows you to collect for these, but insurance companies love to pretend that they don’t exist.
By Negotiating a Fair Settlement
Whatever the insurance company may try to offer you early on, your case is almost always going to be settled later in negotiations. These negotiations can be tough if you’re not used to them. Unfortunately, you can be sure that the insurance companies have a lot of experience in negotiating settlements that are in their own best interests. Your lawyer will use all the evidence to demonstrate exactly what kind of impact this injury has had on you and your life. They will also fight hard for coverage of any ongoing costs that are likely to be an issue for you, such as therapy or reduced earning capacity if your injury has compromised your ability to work. These are the sorts of things insurers tend to overlook.
Beyond the evidence, though, a lawyer simply has experience in the art of negotiation. Your lawyer will know what areas to highlight to press your case and when it’s important to compromise. And, because your lawyer is on your side but not personally involved, they can press hard for your case without becoming overly emotional in a way that might compromise negotiations.
By Preparing for Litigation
If the insurance company refuses a reasonable settlement, your lawyer may recommend filing a lawsuit. Always talk this through with your lawyer carefully before you pull the trigger on going to court. In some cases, going to the court can be a big gamble, and it may be better to accept a slightly smaller settlement than to take the risk. In other cases, your evidence may be strong enough and your losses great enough that your lawyer will urge you not to settle but to press the other side with a formal lawsuit.
Sometimes, just bringing a lawsuit at all can cause the insurance company to come back with a higher settlement offer. They may have been testing you to see if you really had the will to go to court. Once they know that you do, they may back down from some of their objections to your claim. Your lawyer will also make sure that you don’t miss the window of opportunity to bring a lawsuit. In Texas, the statute of limitations typically gives you two years to bring a legal claim for personal injury. There are some exceptions here, so be sure to talk to your lawyer about whether there’s any chance your case might qualify for an exception. Be aware that some claims have to be brought more quickly than two years, such as if a government entity is involved.
By Protecting Your Rights in Court
If your case goes to trial, then, of course, your lawyer will represent you aggressively in the courtroom. Your lawyer will carefully prepare all the evidence and then present it so that it makes logical sense and provides a clear argument for why you should be given the compensation you are requesting. Your lawyer will also cross-examine any witnesses from the other side, challenge the claims of the defense, and carefully explain to the judge or jury just how seriously your injuries have affected your life. Having a lawyer ensures that your story will be told effectively and compellingly, which will greatly increase the chance of getting a favorable verdict.
If you’ve been injured by someone else’s negligence, having a skilled and experienced lawyer on your side will make a big difference. Contact the Law Office of Shane McClelland, PLLC, today or call us at 713-987-7107 to set up a free consultation on your case. We’ve been winning cases for clients for 20 years and are ready to help. We serve clients in the Sugar Land and Katy, TX areas as well as Lincoln, NE.